Scotland will embark on their tour of New Zealand in May as the Grand Slam champions of Europe, following their brilliantly conceived victory over England at Murrayfield on Saturday. No one can doubt that David Sole's brave, resolute team will relish their roles of underdogs in the citadel of world rugby as much as they did against an England side that found itself frustrated and outwitted at every turn by masterly guerrilla tactics.

Every prize fell Scotland 's way on a unique day of confrontation, with the Calcutta Cup, Triple Crown, Five Nations Championship and their second Grand Slam in seven seasons. In years to come such booty will be seen as an extraordinary achievement by a nation relatively short of rugby resources but huge in self-belief and fighting spirit.

Not for the first time England 's lofty aspirations turned to ashes on the brink of major success. For the second successive season Will Carling's talented team blew their chance to win the championship with a final performance that lacked adaptability and a basic instinct for survival.

England remain an inconsistent force though a positive one in European rugby.

Ian McGeechan, the Scotland coach, has shown he is the shrewdest rugby intelligence in the northern hemisphere, following his Lions Test triumph in Australia with a Grand Slam that proved Scotland are greater than the sum of their individual parts. Geech has the priceless ability to work out precisely what is required to overcome the special problems presented by each international.

'I give a lot of credit to our front five for the amount of possession they provided,' said McGeechan. 'It meant we had more control, and that was a crucial element. We were able to move the ball away from potentially dangerous areas, which was also crucial.'

England spent lengthy periods battering at a defensive Scottish wall that never betrayed a serious crack in 80 minutes. Time and again the Scots contrived to get a man between the ball and an English player, denying loose possession and making it impossible for England to generate consistent rhythm. Swift, hard tackling by Jeffrey, Calder and Scott Hastings also destroyed the improvised efforts of Hill, Carling and Underwood to force a breakthrough.

Perhaps Scotland 's most significant tactical triumph was the way they eroded English confidence at set pieces. England 's line-out ball was invariably turned against them by sharp Scottish driving astutely marshalled by the ebullient Sole. In the scrums the English pack comprehensively failed to establish the pressure or control that demoralised Wales.

Once again the Scots were cannier than the English at sussing out what was acceptable to the New Zealand referee David Bishop. During a period of intense first-half pressure by England the Scots appeared to collapse three scrums close to their line, but Bishop was clearly not in the market for a penalty try. He did award England three penalties which Carling chose to run to no avail because Simon Hodgkinson was unhappy at kicking against the strong wind.

Another referee might have taken a harsher view of Scotland 's habit of pulling down rucks and mauls. Yet England had only themselves to blame for the obvious transgressions in the first 10 minutes Dooley offending in a ruck, Probyn stamping which allowed Chalmers to kick two morale-boosting penalty goals. Shortly before half-time the Scottish fly-half kicked a third goal.

As the England coach Roger Uttley remarked: 'The number of penalties we gave away was absolutely horrendous. You cannot afford to give away possession and position by handing the ball to the opposition. It was our worst performance of the season, and Scotland perhaps produced their best.'

Ironically it was England who produced the most exhilarating move of the match which brought the score back to 6-4 after 16 minutes. When Teague peeled from the back of a scrum and slipped the ball to Hill, the scrum-half made ground through the middle before ferrying the ball via Carling to Guscott who sold a slick dummy and stormed over in the left corner.

Memories of England 's free running against the French and the Welsh flickered again in the later stages when Underwood tried desperately to find a gap by switching position. But Stanger's try in the right corner his sixth in six games for his country just after the break left England trailing 13-4 and, though Hodgkinson kicked a short penalty goal in the 55th minute, the full-back later missed with two long-range kicks down wind that effectively signalled defeat.

It may be some small consolation to England that they finished the championship with 90 points against 26, just one short of the best differential recorded in the competition. Certainly Carling's men played the most enterprising rugby of the international season, with 12 tries in four matches.